In The Light Of The Moon
by SteeleCratos
Summary: What seems like an innocent day trip soon erupts into more. Prophecies are revealed, ties are made and severed, and someone new enters the mix. How will the seven react to an eighth? And what is Cronus planning to do about it? JxT AxA.
1. Chapter 1

**Welcome to my new story! First off, there are a few notes I need to run you guys by before we begin.**

**Pairings are JxT and AxA, just so you know. But there's going to be a few surprises coming up from time to time. You'll have to find that out for yourself.**

**Some of the credit goes to Melosa16, for BetaReading this chapter for me, and reminding me of the stupid mistakes I made. So give a round of applause for her!**

**I will be posting a new chapter once every Monday, so stay tuned every week for a new update! **

**Disclaimer: All original elements that are implemented into this story is owned by me. SteeleCratos is owned by me. Please ask for permission if you want to borrow certain original creations for your own needs. Class of the Titans is owned by Studio B Productions and Nelvana. All rights reserved.**

**Stealing this story will result in said perpetrator being fired out of a cannon into the sun. Have fun! **

* * *

In The Light Of The Moon

Class of the Titans

Chapter 1: Soar

New Olympia. It isn't a bad place. Not necessarily good, but not bad. At first glance you might even mistake it for one of the major metropolises in the world: Toronto, Vancouver, New York, even Hollywood maybe, if you just ignore the studios and such.

But New Olympia was special. Not in a way that may seem obvious. There were mystical things going on. Nothing fancy like in the East, but something that can awe you as well as making your heart jump out of your throat, catch a taxi and head over to Nunavut. New Olympia is basically a shelter for the gods.

How are the gods here on Earth, and residing in a metropolis of all places? They are like the Transformers from Cybertron; they hide in plain sight, taking on the guises of everyday people. However, they reside in a special wing of the local high school: Olympus High School (what a creative name!), their chambers only available to the chosen.

Ah yes, the chosen. Taken from all across North America, these teenagers have been chosen by the Gods to protect them from the megalomaniac Cronus and his plot to take over the world.

Now this may seem a bit cliché to some of you, but this is some legit shit going on over here; it's a secret war between a Titan god of time and seven adolescent teenagers. Bystanders sometimes die from the events that circulate around these seven.

How did this all start? Just with a prophecy:

_The seven shall claim the one_

_The one from time and time again_

_One shall fall, and seven remain_

_Who they are, only shimmering eyes will say._

You can interpret this prophecy in any way you want. But this prophecy changed the lives of seven kids forever, showing them a world that was hidden in their own.

But what was really dumb of everyone who ever _read_ this prophecy is that they forgot the second stanza:

_When time grows old_

_Seven shall falter_

_One shall rise, to bring the words._

_Fire leaps in his name_

_He is the key, the key to the sun._

_Time cries, and time weeps_

_But with eight combined the battle continues_

_And one must reveal the light of the moon._

This second stanza dictates events that are yet to come to pass. These events are not yet known, but will be chronicled for your convenience.

This is the Chronicle of the Seven.

* * *

"_And the one must reveal the light of the moon._" A low voice said, with interest. Cronus rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he pondered what he read. "Are you sure the Oracle gave this to you?" the god asked the brown-skinned giant beside him. Agnon winced as his master looked at him with freakishly piercing red eyes, and nodded meekly, giggling sheepishly in nervousness. Cronus didn't really look convinced, looked back at the scroll that he had in his hands.

A few days ago, he'd heard whispers of something big coming up. And being an evil megalomaniac, he had to find out what was going on for himself. So he went to his first source: the Oracle. The newspaper vendor gave him some odd words, and when he got the blank look on the god of time's face, he merely wrote it down. "What in my name is this supposed to mean?" the time god wondered, reading over the passage again and again.

"Gah, this is doing me no good." He finally said, throwing the scroll onto the ground. He got up from his seat, and walked over towards his magical 'see all, hear all' pool at his lair. He walked towards the edge of the platform that he always stepped on to spy on the heroes, and waved his hand.

The pool's vibrations suddenly stopped, and the water went still. Cronus spun his arm once, and it started to swirl at the same speed as that rotation of his arm. The whirlpool spun wildly for a few moments afterwards, before stabilizing once more into calm waters.

Images soon began to swirl, quick run-by's throughout the world. There were different scenes from India, the Middle East, New Olympia, the USA, England, Mexico, all those places.

But one specific place caught his attention. He raised an eyebrow as the rapidly moving scan of the world started to slow down. The locations that were revealed were now within North America. The scan was now showing select views that gradually went north: first Alabama, then Georgia, Virginia, and afterwards New York. But it didn't stop there: it moved beyond the USA, and into Canada. Cronus saw views of different towns and cities all across Canada: Vancouver, Yellowknife, Calgary. The picture on the water suddenly stopped and stayed focused onto a certain city: Toronto.

"Toronto? What could be there?" he asked to himself. He focused his powers, and the pool shifted once again, the picture's focus changing to a boy that was walking down the street.

Cronus raised an eyebrow, and rubbed his chin. What could be so important about this mortal? "Hmmmm... I'll have to investigate this myself." He turned to his lackey. "Agnon, get your brothers. We're going on a trip."

Agnon's eyes widened. _Oh no. Not again..._He sighed, and walked into the main hall, leaving his master to prepare.

* * *

Archie, with his trademarked blue sweater and purple hair, was walking solemnly back towards the dorm, one hand in his pocket, and the other holding onto the strap of his backpack. He entered the building, slamming the door hard with rage.

Jay, who had been watching the news in the living room, had no doubt heard Archie come in. "Yikes, Archie. You alright, you look terrible." he said, noting his long face and half-closed eyes.

The purple haired boy shook his head. "I'm fine, nothing too serious." he said quickly, wanting to get off the subject. He threw himself onto the couch and groaned.

However, Jay was a bit quicker than that. "Oh no Archie. You're not getting away this time. What happened?"

Archie gave a long sigh, a sign of quick defeat. He didn't really feel like fighting today. "It's really nothing. Just a bad mark." He said quickly.

"You got back your chem test today?" Jay inquired. Archie nodded. "Well what did you get? It can't be that bad."

"Oh yeah?" Archie took off his backpack, and opened it up. He shoved a hand inside, and started to shuffle around before pulling out a densely crumpled piece of paper. He tossed to Jay, but the paper smacked him square on the forehead before he could catch it. The partly-Greek teenager glared at Archie, before uncoupling the piece of paper.

The other boy watched Jay as he scanned his test, seeing him go through multiple expressions as he read more and more of the Chemistry Test. Feeling a bit uncomfortable, he sat down beside him on the couch. He laid back, rested his head onto the cushion, and closed his eyes.

"Diatomic." he heard Jay say.

His eyes snapped open immediately and he sat up. "Excuse me?"

He pointed to a certain question on the paper. "If you have 2 triatomic molecules, and you take 4 atoms away, you get a diatomic elementNot an isotope." He explained.

Archie gaped, and snatched the paper from Jay. He read over the question that the other boy was talking about, replacing what he had put down as an answer with his answer. "NO! Oh dear lord no! I'm such an idiot!"

Jay blinked at Archie's reaction to his correction. "Uh...Archie? You only got 98. Isn't that good enough already?"

Archie gowered at Jay. "No, it's not! Getting one wrong means that I'm an idiot for getting one wrong! One wrong means that I was _this_ close to getting perfect!" He put his thumb and forefinger together, leaving a tiny space between the two to emphasize how close it was. He rolled his eyes and collapsed back onto the couch.

Jay raised an eyebrow at him yet again, and rolled his eyes as well, giving up. "Looks like I can't convince you wrong." He grabbed the remote from the coffee table in front of him, and started to flip through the channels. "Nothing on. As usual." He muttered. He went through the channels stopping at CTV. "What's on the news?" the boy muttered rhetorically.

"In other news, there is massive hype going around for a new Hard Rock Cafe that will be opening tomorrow. The Cafe owner says that they 'will have regular live shows with up and coming performers in the business and some well known artists in rock. Julie Kinson reports." A middle-aged reporter said inside the CTV studio.

The view in the studio room shifted to live camera, where a young adult woman was standing outside a moderately large building. "Hello, I'm Julie Kinson, standing outside the Caranos Hard Rock Cafe, here in the outskirts of good old Toronto. The owner of this building is unavailable for interview at the moment, but we have here a young performer who's going to be playing live tomorrow at the grand opening." At this, a brown-skinned teenager stepped up to camera view, beside the reporter. He was wearing a brown-bomber leather jacket and had square lensed glasses, which looked smart rather than geeky on him. He was carrying a black guitar case that was on his back like a backpack, one hand holding one of the straps that supported it. He smiled sincerely as the reporter spoke. "Mr. Cratos-"

"Please, just Steele." he reminded the reporter.

"Alright Steele, how do you feel about your first performance tomorrow?"

"Well I think it's going to be alot of fun, and I get to actually show off my skills to all my friends and family." He grabbed the microphone from the reporters hand and pointed at the camera. "You hear that John! Tomorrow I'm going to prove you wrong!" he snapped. He gave back the microphone to the interviewer, shaking slightly from his action.

"So, uhm... there are also reports that an agent from a big record dealership will be here as well. Do you think that he'll recognize you?"

At this, Steele's eyes widened. "There's going to be an agent?" He looked towards the camera, eyes still wide, and back at the reporter. "Uhm... damn it." He muttered, expression darkening. "if you'll excuse me, I need to...go over my songs a few times. Thanks for having the time to interview me." He said, shaking the reporters hand. He waved to the camera briefly and walked away.

The reporter blinked for a few moments, before realizing that they were still live. She turned back to the camera, and meekly said, "This is Julie Kinson, CTV news."

"And that was the strangest thing I've ever seen." Jay muttered.

Archie raised an eyebrow at the television screen, amused. "Did you see the look on that kid's face? He must be petrified." He laughed.

Jay, however, shot a glare at him. "Well then, I think we should go to this cafe." He grinned as he heard laughter cease.

"You mean tomorrow? To a newly-opening cafe? In Toronto? Just us?"

"Noo... not just the two of us. Let's see what everyone else says first."

Archie narrowed his eyes, and crossed his arms. "I heard Odie was going to some techie convention tomorrow. I don't think he'll come." He smirked as he saw Jay's expression change. "Oh, and Neil's got another photoshoot tomorrow."

"Herry's going to go visit Granny tomorrow as well." a feminine voice cut in. Both of the boys eyes went to them as Atlanta and Theresa walked into the living room.

"What are we talking about?" the huntress asked Archie as she sat down beside him. The purple haired boy suddenly got nervous, but found his tongue and told her about what was on the news, with slightly less stuttering than before.

"Hard Rock Cafe? Sounds fun. You guys going to go?" Theresa asked.

"Yep. It's opening at noon tomorrow." Jay said.

"Wait a sec, what about tickets? What about seating? How are we going to get there anyway? Who knows how far Toronto is from here? _What time _?!" Archie panicked, and grabbed Jay by the collar, shaking him around as he rapidly asked those questions. Jay pushed him off.

"Archie! What the hell's gotten into you today?" He demanded, really worried about the other boy's erratic behaviour.

Theresa, having enough of this, quickly answered the questions. "I have a few contacts in Toronto, so I can get us in no problem; we can use Hermes' portal to get there, so distance isn't a factor, and we ought to be there by 11:30." She explained.

Archie looked at her for a moment, before relaxing. He slapped his hand on his forehead and lay back on the couch.

Atlanta spoke up. "So who's going? Just us four?"

Jay counted back to the people who weren't going. "I think so. Odie's at convention; Herry's at Granny's; Neil's at photoshoot." He nodded. "Yep. Just us four."

Theresa smiled at what Jay's final answer. She liked it whenever he made a decision. Plus he always makes a certain face that makes her heart melt at the sight of it. Thank god that no one knows. "Alright then, it's settled." She spoke, trying to cast the thoughts away for the time being. She can go swoon over him later. "I guess I'd better call Ol' Abel." She walked out of the living room, and went towards the kitchen and to the phone.

Atlanta watched her go, and, without a second thought, looked back at Archie. "You wanna go running?" she asked.

Archie looked back, this time trying oh so very hard to not define her good looks and qualities. Like her perfectly shaped red hair, the way her eyes looked whenever she asked a question, the slight smile that always comes when the two talked. "Uh sure! Let's go." He responded, trying desperately to get those thoughts out of his head. He got up from the couch, but before the two walked out the door, he asked her, "Aren't you going to go change?"

"I did." Atlanta responded, gesturing to her track pants and shirt. She also had a sweater on in case it got a bit chilly.

Archie nodded. "Alright." He opened the door for her.

Jay raised an eyebrow as the two left, and looked around. No one was around at the moment. Just him...and Theresa.

_YES!_He thought to himself, smiling.

Unfortunately, he must have been speaking aloud by accident, for Theresa poked her head from the kitchen. "Did you say something Jay?"

The leader blushed a little bit, and shook his head. The descendant of Theseus shrugged and went back into the kitchen. Jay breathed a sigh of relief, unaware that Theresa had heard everything he said.

* * *

"Why the HELL didn't Caranos tell me that an agent from EMI Music Publishing is coming to hear ME perform! All the way from the freaking UK! Can you freaking believe that?!" the 16 year old Indian boy said, pacing around his room.

His best friend, however, was sitting on a chair that was completely on the opposite direction of the nervous boy. "Uh...Steele? Why are you talking to your guitar?"

It was true. Steele had been indeed speaking to his guitar, which was hung magnificently on the stand. Its ebony black colour shone with the daylight that crept through his windows. The guitarist turned around to his best friend, and glared at him. "I don't need your criticism right now Drew. Right now I need to give my guitar a pep talk."

Drew blinked, and looked at his best friend's guitar. It was ebony black, Epiphone Les Paul guitar with gold detailing. He looked back at Steele, whose eye was twitching slightly. "Wow. This gig really has you wired, doesn't it?"

"Of course it freaking does! If I mess up, I'm screwed!" He snapped, disregarding the fact that he just swore right in his friend's face. The two have done it lots of times, which had led to them not really caring if one of them swore to another. Steele sighed, appearing to calm down. "Sorry about that. I guess I'm a little nervous." He said modestly.

Drew waved it off. "It's alright. I understand the pressure this is putting onto you. But I thought that you wanted to be a doctor, not a professional musician."

Steele walked back over to his guitar, and took it from the stand. He sat down on one of the benches in his room and started to practice.

"I do. This gig is just for fun. I don't really care if people criticize me. Plus the only reason I took that gig was because it wasn't serious. But then Caranos had to bring flipping EMI into the scenario!" he complained. He groaned for a moment, and started to quietly play an improvisation, while looking as his friend spoke.

"Regardless, just do your best, and have fun with it. But above all, if that EMI dude wants to license you, say no!" he said. "You're already rich enough as it is, being the son of a highly respected doctor. I wouldn't want to push the envelope just yet."

Steele nodded as his left hand flew towards the high notes on the far right of the fingerboard. "You're right." He agreed. "You're going to be there, right?"

Drew nodded. "Yep. I'll be right at the front, cheering you on." he grinned. "And I'll be your representative in case that agent likes you." He chuckled.

Steele stopped playing at that, a discord ringing out from the amp. He glared at his best friend. "No. I'm my own representative. You say nothing." he said slowly and seriously.

Drew's eyes widened, and he backed off a bit, raising his hands in defense. "Why?" he asked genuinely

Steele raised an eyebrow at the question. "Do you REALLY want me to answer that?"

Drew opened his mouth for a moment, but no words came out as his brain processed what his friend just asked him. What Steele was referring to was the multiple disasters that erupted whenever Drew tried to do a get rich quick scheme. Steele didn't really want to go down into the dumps with Drew if anything went wrong. The boy wagged a finger at the guitar player. "Good point."

Steele smiled. "Good." He resumed playing, but instead performed a different song, nothing like the other songs that he had played and was going to play. It was unique, at least to him. He didn't really have any words to describe the sounding of his voice, as he didn't really like to work with onomatopoeias. But from the best way that he can describe it, the music was light, but had a strong bass beat to it. However, that was only at the intro and outro. Once the song really got going, the dynamics start to change. A delay effect is added, to provide a very subtle ambient sound to the tones. Then medium distortion was added as well, to change the feel of the music into something hard yet meaningful sustain to the overall tone of the music. A Phase Shift is also added at select parts of the song to provide a twist to the beat, but only in select parts of the bridge and the ends of the chorus. It was obviously an instrumental. Steele didn't consider himself skilled enough to play a guitar and sing at the same time. Too much work for a 17 year old.

Drew grinned as he watched his best friend play. He couldn't really do anything like that. His friend has always been dedicated to his work, especially with music. Hard to believe that this guy is anything more than just a musician. But there was more to him than meets the eye.

The dirty blond haired boy looked at his watch. His eyes widened quickly as he read the time.

"Crap! I gotta go!" He said, interrupting Steele in the middle of his solo. The Indian boy instantly ceased playing and rested his guitar against the bench, rising to his feet. "What? Why?"

"My mom should be coming in like, five seconds to pick me up. We have to go home to pack up. A few hours after your performance, I'm going to Montreal for the break." He explained quickly.

"You're going to Montreal for the whole two weeks of March Break?" Steele raised an eyebrow. "Wouldn't that be long? And boring?"

"Actually, we have a condo up on the outskirts of the city, so all I have to do is bring my Rock Band stuff over there, and play video games for the whole 2 weeks." Drew grinned as Steele smacked his forehead.

"Drew. You're a real douchebag." Steele told him. There was suddenly a really annoying honking noise coming from outside. He went up to the window, and looked down at the driveway. "Yep. She's here." he confirmed. "See you tomorrow man."


	2. Unpredictable

**Finally! 2 days late, but I did it! **

**Mind you that t his was created _before_ I got the first chapter betaread. So there might be a few mistakes that might be seen here. But here you go!**

**Wow. Longest chapter ever. Interesting.**

**Oh, and before I forget, thanks guys for all the reviews! Thanks for the kind words (I don't like to name names) **

**...GO DIABLO!**

* * *

**Chapter 2: Unpredictable**

The rest of the day rolled by nicely. Neil hadn't come back, since he was staying at the set for the next few days. Odie had come back from the first day of the convention, returning with boxes and bags full of different electronic equipment and hardware for computers, but had already said that he was leaving again tomorrow early in the morning. Herry had also called in and said that he was staying over at his Granny's house. That left the 4 who were already at the dorm to begin with all alone. You gotta love fate, eh?

March Break had just started, and the Saturday that came by was the day that Archie, Atlanta, Theresa and Jay were going to Toronto. Jay had insisted that the four bring their weapons, in case of Cronus attacking them unguarded. They obliged, and were ready to go.

"So where are we going exactly?" Archie asked for the tenth time. Theresa groaned.

"Archie, we are going to the school. We are going to Hermes' room, towards the portal. THEN we will enter said portal, and end up in Toronto. We get our bearings, and meet my uncle at his shop. Then he drives us to the hard rock cafe, we go there, have fun, then leave. Capiche?" she explained, snapping the last word at Archie. He nodded rapidly, not wanting her going ballistic right now.

"Alright then. Let's go." Jay said. He was just about to open the door, when a red and a blue/purple blur whizzed by him and out the door. He blinked, and glanced at Theresa, who shrugged unknowingly. "Probably just Archie and Atlanta. Racing each other. Again." She guessed.

And that guess was dead on correct, for Atlanta and Archie, through some odd body language, accusing looks and some gestures with hands and fingers, had decided to have a quick race towards the school. The two ran like blurs, dodging every obstacle that came onto them. Jay and Theresa glanced at each other, and groaned, walking SLOWLY to the school.

* * *

"What took you guys so long?" Atlanta asked as Theresa and Jay finally caught up with them. Theresa glared at her friend, while Jay just rolled his eyes.

"Come on. It's already 11:30." Archie cut in, before things could get to tense. The four started to walk though the school, and into the Janitor's closet. There was a unique lock that was connected to the door, ensuring its closure and lock. Jay took out the key – his golden necklace that made him one of the chosen ones – and placed it into the hole. The clock hands glowed, and turned towards 12:00, and the janitor's door opened. The four instantly walked in, Jay remembering to grab his pendant again, and closed the door.

Theresa turned on the single light that was at the top of the closet, and a shimmering blue portal-like thingy appeared, enveloping half the closet. The heroes instantly stepped through the portal, entering the hidden wing of the school.

Persephone was in the middle of the large hallway that the group was in now. Her gentle figure was a welcome sight for the four heroes. "Welcome! What brings you here today? Doesn't your March Break start today?" she stepped up to the four while asking.

"We're just going to use Hermes' portal to get to Toronto. There's a hard rock cafe opening up in about an hour." Jay explained. Persephone nodded in understanding.

"Well then, I'll leave you to it." She smiled as the four thanked her and left towards Hermes' room. The goddess suddenly remembered something and called back to the four. "Theresa." She called out.

The psychic looked back. "Yeah Persephone?"

"If you see anyone with relation to Agni, tell them to contact me. Alright?" She said casually, as if everyone else knew this person, yet Theresa had no idea who she was talking about.

Theresa blinked questioningly, and raised an eyebrow. "Relation to _who_?" she asked. She didn't get an answer back, for Jay had spoken up.

"Theresa! Come on!" he called out to her. Archie, Atlanta and he were already at the end of the hallway, and were at the center of the wing, where all the other rooms and areas were in multiple different directions. Theresa nodded to them, and turned around to say bye to Persephone. Surprise is, she was gone. "Persephone?" she blinked, and looked around the area. She had disappeared without a trace. Shrugging, she ran back towards the others, still wondering what the goddess of spring wanted her to do.

The group went left at the main hallway, and stopped outside Hermes' door. Jay knocked. "Mr. Hermes? Can we come in?"

A preppy voice soon responded. "Sure! Come on in Jay!"

The four entered the room, and saw the God of Messengers himself, toiling away at his communications booth. He had a phone in his ear, one hand tapping at some sort of pedal thingy, a foot tapping on something similar to a piano dampener, and another hand pressing away at a few buttons beside him. He didn't appear sad or bored though. In fact, it actually looked like he _enjoyed _it. He was apparently talking to someone on the phone as the four entered.

Jay and Archie raised their eyebrows, while Atlanta and Theresa glanced at each other. Atlanta spoke up. "Uh...Hermes?"

The god paused his work, and quickly muttered a few words before disconnecting all the lines. "Oh hello there Jay, Theresa, Archie and Atlanta, and Odi- Odie?" he looked around the room for a moment. "Uh, you're missing 3." He pointed out.

"We know Hermes. Nothing's the matter. We just need a quick route to Toronto." Jay explained.

Hermes' curiosity was peaked. "Interesting. I was just going to go there later today. What are you going to do there?"

"We're just going to go to the 'grand' opening of a hard rock cafe." Archie said, adding sarcasm to the 'grand'. A chuckle appeared from everyone except for Hermes and Jay.

Hermes smiled soon after the joke passed. "Well, alright then." He went over to his comm. booth and quickly pressed a few buttons, and typed in a sequence on his main computer. The back wall suddenly split in two, revealing a large swirling portal. Beyond it was a view of...

"A desert?" Atlanta inquired as she looked beyond the portal. It looked to be the Sahara desert, due to the lack of life and the heck lot of sand and bones.

"Oopsie! Wrong sequence." Hermes apologized quickly. He typed in another sequence quickly, smiling sheepishly. The view beyond the portal had shifted through seemingly random places at rapid sequence as it scanned for their destination. The portal finally stopped, showing them a city similar to New Olympia. The CN Tower was visible, and was the landmark that told them that it was Toronto that was beyond the portal.

Atlanta looked back towards her friends, who were just standing there. What were they waiting for? An invitation? The portal was there, they were ready to go, and they were losing time! "Come on guys! Let's go!" She urged them impatiently.

Archie looked towards Jay. "Yeah, what are we waiting for?" He, as well, was wondering what the heck was going on in the leaders head. And if Cronus is involved in this, he was going to kill him.

The descendant of Jason spoke at last. "Hold up guys. Where exactly is the cafe at?"

Theresa smirked. "Oh, I know where it is. It's a block away from the Rogers Center. Just follow me." With that, she stepped into the portal, leaving her friends high and dry.

Atlanta shrugged, and sped into the portal after her friend. Archie followed afterwards purely on ensuring Atlanta's safety. He leaped into the portal head and hands first.

Jay blinked, and groaned. "Figures. They _always _do this. " he walked straight into the portal, leaving Hermes to his work.

A few minutes after the group had left for Toronto, the god of messengers rubbed his chin thoughtfully. What were the kids planning to do there? He hoped it was nothing more than to just attend that Hard Rock Cafe opening. Who knows when Cronus could strike on them, give them another life-threatening injury, break the prophecy and screw them over? Hermes shook his head. _can't happen. _He thought to himself. _The day that happens, I'll make out with Aphrodite. Wait a minute, I did! _He grinned goofily as he thought about that situation. He shook his head as his mind went back to reality, and he facepalmed. _Then that means that there will be a chance that Cronus will attack. Hopefully they'll be careful._ The god looked back at the portal.

_I wonder if they know...no. Can't be. They can't know until the time is right. _Hermes nodded to himself, and grabbed his heralds staff. It was time to carry out Hera's orders.

* * *

Steele took slow, deep breaths. It was showtime, and the hard rock cafe had already opened half an hour ago. It was filled to the brim with people, ranging from adults to teenagers. He peeked out from behind the curtain, and saw two of his best friends sitting in one of the closest tables to the stage. Beside them, he saw 4 teenagers, around his age; two boys and two girls. He paid particular attention to one of those two girls. All he could get from her, due to one of the boys blocking his view of her, was that she had long, flowing red-yellow hair, and an amazing body. That is, until the dude beside her decided to lean back and block his view.

Steele grumbled for a moment, and went back to his spot. He made another runthrough of his equipment."Let's see... Marshall Amp, with calibrated EQ...check." He patted his amp. "Effects pedals. Let's see," he looked down to the floor, where all his stomp boxes were. "Boss delay, Boss distortion, boss phaser, MXR distortion, Boss loop station, Boss chorus..." He continued through the effects pedals he had, going up to 10. They were all present and accounted for. Steele quickly grabbed his guitar, plugged it in, and turned on the amp. He quickly turned down the volume to a whisper, and he pressed down on the Boss delay pedal, turning it on. He played a few notes, and nodded. It was on full power and ready to go.

As he continued to check through the power levels of his pedals, another man had entered the backstage. He was wearing the typical ordinary business suit, and looked happy when he saw Steele. "Hello there!" He announced his presence.

Steele looked up, and smiled as he saw the familiar figure. "Mr. Caranos! Glad you could make it." He leaned his guitar against his amp and shook his boss' hand.

"I wouldn't miss this for the world, champ. It's your first gig! Hopefully the crowd has the same taste as me and love you as much as I love your music!" He grinned.

Steele raised an eyebrow at the many ways you can interpret what he just said, but went with the most logical meaning. "Say, uh... is that EMI agent here yet?" He asked. "I can't seem to find him in the audience."

The owner of the cafe grinned. "Oh I assure you, he is here. Closer than you might think."

Steele blinked as Caranos started to laugh manically. He started to feel veeeery awkward as the laugh kept going and getting louder in volume. Thankfully, it was so loud on the other side of the curtain that nobody could ever hear it.

Thankfully, Caranos started to cough, interrupting his amazingly freaky evil laugh kind of thing. Steele thanked whoever it may concern for getting this guy to stop freaking him out.

The owner of the cafe composed himself, recovering from the laughing fit, and cleared his throat. "Anyways," he said, straightening his tie. He checked his watch, and beamed. "Ah, yes. It's almost 1:30. Time to bring you in." He smiled as Steele's eyes widened with nervousness. "Oh don't worry. You'll do great. I'm positive. Plus what do I have to lose? I'm rich!" he gloated, as he went beyond the curtain and onto the front of the stage.

Steele rolled his eyes. "Gee, that makes me feel alot better." He muttered under his breath. He jumped and gulped with nervousness as he heard cheers roar as his name was being said. He picked up his Les Paul guitar, and grabbed his pick. He took a deep breath, and stepped out. "By Agni's fire I hope I do good..." He muttered as he went onstage.

* * *

((About 10 minutes earlier))

Jay, Theresa, Archie and Atlanta entered the Hard Rock Cafe, noticing the large number of people that were already there. Archie started to feel nervous, while Theresa felt a little self-conscious. Jay, however, felt fine, mostly due to the fact that he didn't really care, and that Theresa already looked perfect, no matter what anyone says.

Atlanta looked around the cafe, and noticed a four-seater up front. "Ooh! Over there! I see a spot." Atlanta pointed towards the table, which was sitting with the 3 other seats that was up in front of a small stage.

Archie, noticing an affirmative look on Jay's face, shook his head. "No thanks. I'd prefer somewhere...a bit closer to the door." He said, taking note of the big, scary, biker guys in the cafe. Atlanta groaned, and lightly elbowed Archie in the gut.

"Oh suck it up, you big baby. We've all seen worse. Haven't we Jay?" Atlanta looked back to the leader, but found him gone. "Jay?" she looked around quickly, and also noticed that Theresa was also gone. "Guys?" She glanced back at Archie.

"They went over there. Unfortunately." He informed the huntress, pointing to the front row table that Atlanta had pointed out to them. Apparently the two didn't want to hear the two bicker and argue, so they just left them and went to sit.

Atlanta looked over to where he was pointing, and indeed saw Jay and Theresa, already sitting beside each other on the four seater table. She mentally groaned. Now she'll have to sit beside Archie! Archie! The one boy who she was totally, incapably in love with! She made a mental note to kill Theresa when they got back to the dorm.

Without any more thoughts, the two caught up to Jay and Theresa, and took the other two seats sitting beside each other. Archie felt a little uncomfortable, sitting beside the woman that he was brutally in love with since he first met her, but luckily the fact that he wasn't alone was enough to contend him for now.

A waitress had come to take their orders after a few minutes. Archie and Atlanta had a coca-cola, Jay had a glass of water, and Theresa ordered a strawberry daiquiri. The waitress smiled, being excellently polite and calm despite her first day working, and left to grab their drinks, but not before leaving a wink to Jay, who was both surprised and flattered, and blushed a little.

Theresa, however, felt a pang of jealousy as the waitress had left. _What does she have that I don't?_ She thought to herself. _Sure, she may be good-looking, but I am as well! _She glared daggers at every single waitress' backs as they passed by, obviously upset. Maybe coming here wasn't such a good idea after all...

Theresa looked over towards the stage. It was mediocre, a bit small, but had good leverage and good colour scheme. It coordinated with the rest of the cafe's features. There was a drum kit already set up on the center back of the stage, and a stool was also there, though for what reason, the psychic didn't know. There was also a microphone set up as well, for obvious reasons. In the back there were stereo speakers set up on both ends of the stage, and a designated spot for one more, though for what reason, again, she didn't know.

As Theresa examined the stage, she noticed a movement with the curtains. There, at the end, she noticed a boy, sticking his head out from the back of the stage, most likely checking out the audience. _He looks cute._ She thought. Theresa turned around and drank her daiquiri quickly as she noticed that he was looking at her. She assumed that it was impulse, but she actually didn't know the reason why she did that.

The music that had been playing in the stereo system all around the cafe had started to die down after a few more minutes, a steady drum beat withering away into nothing. The loud chatter from the people in attendance had died down somewhat, though it was still going, and the lights that covered most of the cafe had dimmed down. The only bright lights were centered onto the stage.

"I guess the show's starting." Archie said, before anyone had a chance to ask what was going on.

A man had walked up to the stage, and took a place in front of the microphone. He had on a gray business suit, nothing original there, but looked strangely familiar to Theresa. Actually, he looked exceedingly familiar to Archie, Atlanta and Jay as well. Way to familiar, but they _just _couldn't place it.

The man cleared his throat, adjusting his tie, and spoke. "Welcome everyone, to the grand opening of the hottest new Hard Rock Cafe in good old Toronto!" He began. There was a round of applause, and died down when he spoke again. "I am Caranos, the owner of this magnificent place." He smiled. "I don't want to be up here for too long, so I'll just wrap this up. Every week, I

will be having a live rock performance right here, on this stage, by multiple amazing bands and peoples, both famous and undiscovered. Each and all are screened, for lack of a better term, by me before going up here, so you won't get anyone that sucks." He chuckled. "Today is one of those days. Right now, you will be hearing a live performance by an amazing boy with outstanding talent. He has impressed me with his music, and, if you like him, will definitely go a long way in the music industry. " He cleared his throat, and gestured to the back of the stage. "Introducing, Mr. Steele Cratos!"

The cafe gave roaring applause, a few people even cheering and whistling. Especially for a few people at the front. Theresa saw a couple of boys who were sitting a few tables across from them that were going mad with excitement. _Must be friends._ She thought to himself.

The curtain flapped when the boy came out from the back of the audience. He was holding a long rectangular briefcase in one hand, and in the other, a black guitar. He walked up to the front of the stage, and quickly glanced back. Theresa noticed that he relaxed a little when his gaze set over an amp that Caranos had rolled out a few feet behind him. He opened up the briefcase on the ground in front of him, revealing a set of something. She didn't really have a good look, despite being in the front. The psychic also noticed a few cords that were lying around the stage. The boy picked one up, and plugged one end into one pedal on very left end, and a different cord into whatever he took out of the briefcase. He quickly plugged one cord into his amp, which had the words, _Marshall_, written on it, and another cord into his guitar. He flipped the amp on, and Theresa immediately heard the sound of the guitar strings being plucked accidentally.

The boy wrapped a strap that ran the length of the guitar around him, taking a stance that was common for standing up and playing guitar. A little nervously, the boy tapped the microphone. An extremely loud and sharp feedback rang through the whole cafe, forcing everyone to cover their ears, including himself. After the screech had ended, he chuckled sheepishly. "Oops. My bad." He apologized quickly. He cleared his throat.

"Um...not really much for me to say here. Hello!" He waved a bit to the audience. He didn't get a wave back. "Right...uh... as Mr. Caranos had already said, I'm Steele. And I'm here to play you a little something. 5 songs, that's it. 4 of them are just covers by some famous bands and personnel, and the last one is an original song by me. Let's get started." The boy looked down at his pedalboard, and started to stomp on a few of them, getting the effects he wanted. "The first song I'm going to be playing is a pretty famous one that most of you should know. Here you go, ladies and gentlemen: Eruption, by Van Halen!" He announced.

The crowd cheered as they heard that Eruption was going to be played. The only ones who didn't cheer were Archie, Jay, Theresa and Atlanta, mostly because they had no idea what Eruption was. They were about to find out.

Steele tapped on a specific pedal, and a small drum solo rang in. At first he went slow and deep, going in with just the power chords and using his whammy bar to make it sound cooler with a vibrato effect. As the song progressed into the high parts, instead of tapping the notes as would be normally done for the first part of the song, Steele went into incredibly high speed picking, while his left hand went like a blur through the frets. His hand then started to move towards the head of the guitar, going one up, then two down on the frets until he reached the very end. He rang some notes and pushed down on the whammy bar a bit more. Now came the second part of the song.

All eyes were on Steele, everyone amazed at the boy's talent. Caranos had found the next Eddie Van Halen!

Steele was absorbed in his music, everything else going on around him unacknowledged. His hands were both at the neck now, tapping away at the solo. His wrists were straining and hurting like hell as he played, but he swallowed his pain and continued on.

As the last note rang out, the cafe screamed with cheers at the boy's performance, including the four heroes, who were easily impressed by the teenager's performance. There were whistles and cheers that rang out for Steele, who waved and thanked everyone. He made a gesture that told everyone to quiet down, which they obliged into doing.

"Alright, thanks everyone! Good crowd here." He chuckled. "Now then, for my next song, I'm going to play you a song that you guys should know of. It was made famous by a youtube dude named Funtwo! Here is Canon Rock!" He grinned as the crowd cheered at the news. Without any more thought, the young guitarist dove right into the song.

* * *

_Just two more left_. Steele thought after an hour. He had just finished playing covers of Far Beyond the Sun, by Yngwie Malmsteen and Curse of Castle Dragon by Paul GIlbert, and had only one more cover left and then his original song. He rubbed

his chin in thought as he considered how to bring it up. _Maybe I should do it now. Caranos might object, but who cares? _He grinned.

"Alright everyone, lemme just ask you guys a quick question." He said after the applause died down for his performance. "How many of you guys have played the Guitar Hero games?" he asked the audience. "Come on, raise your hands, don't be shy."

Pretty much everyone raised their hands at the question, including the four New Olympians. Steele looked around the audience, and glanced towards the four. The two guys that were sitting there had raised their hands. The girls that were with them looked a bit surprised. He pointed towards one of them, a purple-haired one with a blue sweater on. "You there sir." He said. The boy looked around sheepishly, and pointed to himself. "Yes, you. Tell me, which version of the Guitar Hero games have you played?"

The boy muttered some words that Steele couldn't hear. "I'm sorry, can you repeat that?" he pointed the microphone as close to the boy as he could. A clear voice rang through the speaker system, though it sounded a bit shaky. _Must be nervous. _He thought.

"Uh...Guitar Hero 2." The boy had responded. Steele beamed. Perfect.

"Guitar Hero 2, was it?" Steele clarified for everyone else. The blue-sweatered boy nodded, and sat back down to his seat beside another girl.

"Now then, are any of you familiar with the song by Buckethead, Jordan?" he asked the general audience. The cafe roared with affirmations. "Wonderful, wonderful! It's supposedly one of the hardest songs in the Guitar Hero franchise, am I correct?" the cafe roared again. Steele gestured for everyone to calm down.

"Now then, how would you feel if I played for you, right now, the Guitar Hero 2 version of the song, Jordan, by Buckethead?" the Hard Rock cafe was practically bouncing with excitement. The kid was actually going to play Jordan for them! No one else had even attempted an actual good version of Buckethead's Jordan before. Let's see how he does.

Steele pointed down to his pedalboard. "Since I don't have an actual killswitch on my guitar," he rose up his Epiphone guitar, making sure that everyone saw that it didn't have a killswitch mod. "I'm going to use something a little different. Down here I have a footswitch that I have calibrated to act as a killswitch, enabling me to perfectly mimic all of Buckethead's techniques to get his tone." He flexed his fingers. "But enough technicalities. Here it is: Jordan, by Buckethead!"

* * *

"I didn't know you played Guitar Hero 2." Atlanta commented, surprised as Archie sat back down.

"I played the demos that were available in the mall." he admitted.

Jay laughed. "Yeah. He won one of the local tournaments in the mall. He's got some fast fingers."

Atlanta punched Archie lightly on the arm. "And why didn't you tell me about this?"

"Because I didn't want to." Archie retorted a little harshly. Atlanta blinked in surprise and brought up her hands in defence.

"Alright, alright, easy there. Just a question." she said, a little irritated and somewhat surprised at Archie's action. She looked back up at Steele, who had announced that he was going to be playing Jordan. Her eyebrows raised with interest, she intently listened to the song as it played.

As the song progressed, Atlanta's expression changed to dislike. "What's with this song? It's just repeating over and over again. Plus it sounds really weird." She looked over at Archie, who was nodding his head to the rhythm of the song over and over again. Atlanta struggled to stifle a giggle. He looked like a dork.

"Just wait until the solo starts. You're going to be blown away." Archie told her. He started snapping his fingers at the beat now, which made him look more and more like a dork.

Atlanta, still stifling a giggle, shrugged. "If you say so."

Suddenly the monotonous repetition of the somewhat techno song suddenly changed. Dramatically. Atlanta looked up at the performer, and was amazed at his speed. _His fingers are as fast as my feet!_ Atlanta smiled. She kind of liked the speed now, and the sound had changed into a fast paced techno metal... riff, for lack of a better term. Steele seemed to be enjoying himself, as he seemed to be laughing as he played. At least to Atlanta it looked like laughing. It could be something else.

As the solo reached its climax, Atlanta absent-mindedly tapped her foot along to the fluctuating notes as he played them. She seemed to really enjoy the song.

Theresa apparently picked up on this, and kicked Atlanta on the knee under the table, grabbing her attention. "What!" the huntress snapped.

"Are you alright? You spaced out." she told her. Atlanta was surprised that she actually even heard her over the music, but blinked nonetheless at what she said.

"I did what?"

"Never mind, I'll tell you later." Theresa rolled her eyes and took another sip from her drink.

The song was closing now, and had gone back to the same repetitive notes as the intro. The song finally finished and Steele visibly relaxed, and slumped over a bit from his spot. He rubbed his wrists, most likely from pain, and cleared his throat. All around the cafe, the crowd screamed with cheers and applause, as did the four Olympians. Atlanta and Theresa were more outgoing than Jay and Archie, cheering while the boys merely clapped. Whistles rang out from random spots in the area, and Steele smiled. He waved a bit, and made a gesture for everyone to quiet down.

"Thank you, thank you guys. You've been a great audience. And I'm proud to say that I had a lot of fun here today. I'm glad I had the opportunity to perform for you guys, and for that I'm thankful." Applause rang out before Steele could continue. "Now it may seem that I'm done here, but not exactly. I still have one more song for you all." He put up his index finger. "This one isn't a cover song like all the others. This one is originally composed by me. Here you go." Steele hit a few pedals, and after a quick drum intro played, the solo began.


	3. Recognition

**Hey guys! It's me again, a little late, but better late than never right?**

**Just a few quick notes before we begin: School's been murder on me right now, so expect chapters to be a little late. And my other story (if you guys even read it) is now on hiatus. I lost my inspiration, and it'll be a looong time before I can get to it again. **

**So yes. Enjoy the chapter, and please review!**

**WARNING: LANGUAGE IS IN THIS CHAPTER!**

* * *

**Chapter 3: Recognition**

Few by few, people started to leave the Cafe; having heard all there was to know. Steele's first performance had astounded them in unimaginable ways, and they were bound to come again tomorrow.

Steele sighed with relief. He was glad that his performance was over and done with, and he had fun doing it. Now he wanted to just focus on his studies. This was a once in a blue moon opportunity, just for fun.

The boy nodded. _Yes. I'm not going to do this again. I'm done and over with it, and I had fun. Not like anything else can happen today, right?_

He suddenly felt a pang of pain coming from his ankle. He rubbed his tenderly, and felt a knot up at one of his ligaments. He started to rub and stretch around for a bit. His thoughts still reach back to the day when he had once fractured his ankle in two places. Luckily they were hairline fractures or he would've missed all of Grade 6. A smile crept up to his lips. He had a literally insane teacher that year, but was pretty fun to be with. The crappy part was that he had to miss the first 3 weeks of school due to the injury. He couldn't really recall how he had done it, just the pain and the awful snap that was audible seconds later, and the scream.

He shrugged absentmindedly. "Whatever, it's done with, it's healed, everything's fine." He assured himself. He had realized that he was still rubbing his ankle, and stopped immediately. He shook his head violently for a second, then stopped.

"Remembering good times?" a voice suddenly said.

Steele jumped in surprise. He looked around for the source of the voice. "Where are you?" he called out.

With that, a creepy hooded and cloaked figure suddenly popped out from the wall, scaring the boy shitless. "Right here, boy."

"Holy shit!" Steele yelped out. He clamped his hand to his heart and panted. "Please don't do that. I've had enough surprises already in my lifetime."

The figure bowed. "I apologize."

Steele rolled his eyes and bowed as well, as he always did when dealing with this person. "So what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?"

"I have another message." the figure simply said.

"From whom to whom?" the guitarist asked.

Instead of answering, the figure just waved a cloaked hand. Steele's eyes widened and suddenly closed as a telepathic message suddenly transmitted into his memories. He saw figures, pictures, deserts and more. Something that was associated with...

Steele's eyes opened. He knew all that he needed to know. He nodded slowly, but raised an eyebrow. "Why?" he asked..

"That is beyond me and you. I personally don't care at the moment." the figure said, shrugging. He looked around. "I'm afraid I must leave you for now. You're going to have your hands full in a few moments." The figure walked backwards, laughing as he disappeared into the drywall.

Steele blinked. "Hands full in a few moments? What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" he wondered aloud.

"E-excuse me?" a new voice stammered behind him.

Steele's eyes widened, and he slapped his forehead. "Damn it." he turned around. "Sorry about that. I was talking to someone else...and..." He trailed off as he saw who he was talking to. It was the girl from before, the one with the wavy red hair. Steele gaped, and stammered. "Oh...uh...hello." he chuckled weakly.

The girl giggled. "Hello."

"I thought that people weren't allowed backstage." Steele wondered.

"I thought that you would have left already." the girl retaliated, smirking.

"Touché." Steele smiled. "I didn't catch your name."

The girl held out a hand. "Theresa."

Steele shook it. "Steele, as you already know." he took note of her recognisable hair and her clothing. "I saw you in the audience. Did you enjoy the performance?"

Theresa nodded. "I did. It was amazing. How long have you been at it?"

"What, guitar playing in general or just going to gigs and playing?"

"The first one."

Steele smiled. It had been a long time since someone had asked him that. "I've been playing guitar for 4 years. Not any of that self-teaching crap. I got lessons from a great tutor, and that was that. Stayed with him up to this year. Actually, last month was my anniversary for first taking up the electric guitar." He shook his head. "But enough about me. What about you? I haven't seen you around before; did you just move?"

Theresa shook her head. "No. I'm just on a day trip here. Checking out the local stores and the CBD and such. Turns out everything that's available I already have. Go figure." Theresa laughed.

Steele chuckled silently as well. "So is it safe to say that you're," He took a quick look around to make sure that no one else was eavesdropping. "Rich?" he finished.

Theresa nodded. "Yep. My dad owns a chain of cattle ranches out in the Prairies."

The boy le raised his eyebrows. "Impressive. I'm somewhat wealthy. My dad's a well respected doctor around these parts, so my family and I get by." He took a deep breath. "If you don't mind my asking: is it just you here, or do you have some friends along?"

"Actually, I do have some friends here. They should be still at the table." Theresa looked back from where she came, and back to Steele. "Do you...want to go meet them?" She said hesitantly.

The guitarist nodded. "Sure. I've already packed up my gear. Can't hurt."

Theresa beamed up, and grabbed Steele by the wrist and guided him along to the cafe area towards her table. Once they arrived, Steele found himself looking upon 3 other teenagers, around the same age as him. Two boys and another girl. The rich girl introduced him. "Guys, this is Steele. Steele: these are my friends: Jay, Archie and Atlanta."

Steele bowed his head lightly. "Hello. Nice to meet you all."

"Hey." Jay and Atlanta said. Archie however, just waved his hand. Steele raised an eyebrow, but didn't point it out.

"How are you guys enjoying the Cafe? Is it nice?" Steele asked the four. Part of the deal with Steele performing on stage for Caranos was that Steele had to 'interview' a few guests to see how the cafe can be improved or if it even needs to be improved in exchange for this being just a one time opportunity. He didn't want to sign any contract or nothing and be stuck performing forever. Those things are _evil_.

Atlanta answered his question. "It's nice. And the live entertainment is great. This is a great place to hang out at." the girl laid back on her seat, getting as much comfort as she could with the wooden seats. Jay nodded in agreement.

"I wouldn't mind a bit of food." a mumble came from Archie. Steele leaned in closer.

"I'm sorry?"

"I said I wouldn't mind some food." He held up a menu. "There's only drinks here, no food."

Steele blinked. "Uh...turn it around." He told the purple-haired boy.

Archie raised an eyebrow, and turned around the menu. There, smack dab onto him, was the food section. He saw some sandwiches and other foods that make a great snack. He only made an "oh" sound as Theresa and Atlanta giggled.

"No worries. Everyone makes mistakes." he smiled, though not in amusement, but in sincerity. Archie looked at him for a long moment, before simply shrugging and looking away.

Again, Steele raised an eyebrow, but let it go. He looked back at the others. "So where are you guys from?" he asked.

"New Olympia." Theresa answered.

Steele blinked. "I'm sorry, where?"

"New Olympia." Theresa repeated. Again, there was a blank look on Steele's face. "You don't know where New Olympia is?"

"Where it is? I haven't even heard of it!" He thought for a moment. "Then again, I never really paid attention in Geography... where is it?"

The four teens exchanged glances, which made Steele a little uneasy_. These guys didn't even know where their hometown is on a map? That cannot be good._ He thought to himself.

"It's not that far from here. It only took a few... _hours_ to get here." Archie quickly said. No doubt it was a cover-up.

"Uh...yeah! Yeah! It took around 4 hours to drive here." Jay agreed with a hint of uncertainty in his voice. Something that Steele picked up.

He raised an eyebrow. "4 hours... ok." he said slowly.

Theresa looked at him. "Anything wrong?" she put a hand on his shoulder.

"Not really. I'm fine." Steele looked back at her, but noticed something strange about the girl. "Theresa?" he waved a hand in front of her face.

Theresa was not responding, and had gone through some sort of trance. Her eyes had gone wide, staring at something but not really looking at anything, and her complexion went pale. Jay and the others had noticed it as well. "Theresa?" Jay called to her.

Archie and Atlanta exchanged glances. When Theresa was staring into space, she was having a vision. And when she was having a vision, bad things happen. Lots and Lots of bad things.

Steele looked at Jay. "Is she narcoleptic or something?"

Jay shook his head. Before he answered, Theresa suddenly snapped out of it. She recoiled from some invisible force, and held her head in pain. Jay's attention was back at her. "Theresa!" he instantly hugged her, which surprised Theresa, but wasn't complaining.

"What did you see?" he asked her. His eyes widened as he realized that Steele was right beside him. _Crap._ he thought as he realized his mistake. He let go of Theresa and chuckled sheepishly, despite the glares coming from Archie and the facepalm from Atlanta.

"See? What do you mean by see?" Steele raised an eyebrow. He glanced at Theresa, and then towards Archie and Atlanta. These guys were more than they looked. When they didn't answer immediately, he crossed his arms. "Come on, what are you guys talking about? You guys are definitely hiding something. Now what is it?" He asked again, this time to Theresa.

Theresa bit her lip, mentally hurting herself for having a vision again, and looked at Steele. He seemed very serious and wanted to know what was going on. She sighed, and looked back at the other boy in front of him. "Jay...they're coming." she simply said.

The dirty-blond haired boy looked at her questioningly. "Who's 'they'?"

Steele had the same question, but Jay had beaten him to the punch. He watched the girl as she spoke, and he went into full skeptical mode. "Giants? What the hell are you talking abo-"

He was rudely interrupted by a sudden thud, a loud one that shook the whole building. What little chatter that was present had disappeared, the room going deathly silent. Suddenly, another thud hit again, shaking the room violently.

Caranos had suddenly appeared from out of freaking nowhere, and was shocked at what was happening. "What in the name of-" he was again, interrupted, but this time by an explosion, which threw him and basically everyone who was standing off their feet, including the teenagers.

Steele rubbed his head from the fall, and quickly got up. His eyes widened as he looked towards the empty wall, which had a huge gaping hole in it that led to the alley beside it. What was occupying the space was...

"Giants!" Archie put in.

"Are you kidding me?!" Steele gaped, not believing what he was seeing. Those dudes were 10 times his size! And the skin tones! One was green; another chocolate brown with a goatee, surprisingly; one was orange; and another was yellow; and the last one had two heads! _Two freaking heads!_. From what Steele could make out from the rubble and dust, the five giants were led by...

Caranos?

Steele blinked, and looked from the unidentified man, then back to Caranos, who was on the floor of the stage, still recovering from the shockwave. He looked back at the unknown man, and back at his boss. The two looked so... _identical_.

"Cronus!" Steele heard Jay yell, which interrupted his thoughts. Wait a sec... _Cronus?_ As in the Titan God of Time Cronus?

A cackling was heard, coming from 'Cronus', who was laughing at Jay. "So many people to kill, so little time. But not now. I'm not here for you today Jay." His heart jumped as he realized that he was indicating towards him. "Get him!" Cronus commanded the Giants. The four beasts grinned and started marching their way towards him.

Steele gulped. "Oh jeez..." He took a quick glance at Caranos, who was slowly getting up. "Caranos! Get everyone out!" he told the aging owner of the Cafe. He obliged and started to evacuate the building.

He looked towards the others, about to tell them to leave as well, when he saw them draw...weapons? Jay had brought out a retractable blade; Theresa pulled out nunchucks; Atlanta had some sort of wrist crossbow thingy on her right arm, and Archie had... a whip?

_What the hell?_ He wondered. His attention went back to the Giants. Apparently they had split up, one giant against one teen. The one that went after Steele was the chocolate brown skinned giant, who was starting to get too close for comfort. "Um... you don't think that we can solve this rationally, do you?" He asked the big guy. The giant cracked his knuckles maliciously, and Steele sighed. "Didn't think so."

Before the giant could even blink, Steele had sprinted full speed towards the giant. The boy stomped on the beast's foot, which earned a cry of pain on its own, and catapulted himself up to the giant's face. His feet landed on the fiend's upper torso, and he instantly launched a strong punch right at the giants face. There was an audible _crack_ as the beast recoiled. Steele back-flipped from the giant back onto the floor, landing on one knee, and shook his right fist in pain. "Ow! That freaking hurt." he complained. He looked back at his opponent, and grinned as he noticed that he had broken the beast's nose. "Sorry about that, but you asked for it!" he told the giant, who was screaming in pain.

Steele heard Cronus speak again. "Come on Agnon! You can do better than that! I want him _alive_! Just grab him!"

"Want me alive?! Motherfucker, are you out of your goddamned mind?!" Steele snapped back at the god/man, much to the surprise of pretty much everyone due to the language.

Agnon had recovered miraculously, unfortunately for the young boy, and was trying to grab him again before Steele could get a response. The boy sidestepped, and went into his martial arts stance, which had his left foot on its toes, his right arm, arched loosely above his head, and his left arm inverted, hand pointing to the ground.

Agnon lunged for him, but Steele jumped 2 feet to the side, supposedly a 'sidestep'. Agnon, his lunge failed, lost his footing and tripped, slamming into the ground, and caused more than a few tiles to crack and shatter on the ground. The guitarist grinned, and went out of his stance, walking nonchalantly to Agnon, who was groaning in pain. He leaned forward; arms crossed, and said sarcastically to the giant, "Are we having fun yet?"

The others fought their respective giants as well. Theresa managed to beat back hers with some good old-fashioned major kicks to the face, gut and crotch; Jay utilized the terrain to his advantage, beating his enemy back towards an about-to-collapse pillar and bringing it down on him; and Archie and Atlanta used teamwork, each exchanging enemies and trading hits with both giants until they couldn't get back up.

After the lackeys had been cleaned up, Jay, Theresa, Archie and Atlanta focused their attention at Cronus, something that Steele didn't want to do. He took a few steps back and let everything pass by.

"Cronus!" Jay yelled. "Your reign of terror ends now!"

The god, however, shook his head slowly. "Always the clichés Jay?" He asked rhetorically. He laughed maliciously. "I don't think so." Cronus held up a hand, and his trademark scythe appeared in his hand. He clenched on it, ready to attack.

Archie was ready for that. He took out his whip, doing a showy whipcrack before lashing it out at Cronus. The god, however, let the whip wrap around his free arm. With a grin, he grabbed hold of the metal, gathering a "huh?" from him, and pulled the boy towards him violently. The god gave a roundhouse kick as Archie careened towards him, sending him crashing into one of the walls.

"Archie!" the others cried. Jay, Theresa and Atlanta glared at the god. "You'll pay for that!" Jay threatened.

Steele witnessed Archie's ownage, and instinctively ran towards him. Archie had managed to put his back to the wall, but was in total pain and wincing. Steele bent down on one knee and took a look at him. "Archie!" he called to him.

Archie seemed to be a bit disoriented. He managed to glance at him, before saying, "Since when was the air green?" he muttered incoherently. Steele blinked, and took a glance at the injured boy's pupils.

"Mild disorientation followed by hallucinations, sunken pupils... concussion. Damn it." he muttered to himself. He took a look at the rest of his injured body. His arms looked alright, from what he could tell with the sweater and all, but his right wrist seemed to be bent out of shape. Steele took a look at it, and as soon as his finger touched the bone, a wince was heard from the purple-haired boy. "Seems to be sprained." he concluded. He applied light pressure against the boy's chest, and saw the necessary response. The body seemed to back away when the abdomen was pressed, despite him being out of it. "Bruised ribs." he added into his mental note.

Steele kept at his examination, noticing a golden brace at the other boy's left ankle_. I wonder what condition would have him needing that? _He wondered. Now was not the time for pondering though.

Steele sighed, after finishing. He glanced back at the others, who were skirmishing with Cronus. He'll have to tell them later on.

The boy suddenly heard a moan coming from Archie. Steele blinked, and looked back at the injured warrior. He was conscious. "Archie!" Steele exclaimed. "How are you feeling?"

"Like being run over by a roller coaster." Archie replied melodramatically. "What happened?"

"You got massively owned by Cronus. Can you move your right wrist?" Steele instantly asked him.

Archie raised an eyebrow. "What? Of course I ca- OWW!" Archie cried out in pain as he tried to move his hand. "Goddamned it all! OW!" He cursed, clutching his hand in pain.

"Don't worry. It's just a sprained wrist. Otherwise you would be screaming in pain." Steele casually told him. "And you have a concussion, and some bruised ribs. Don't move, or you'll make it worse."

Archie groaned in pain, holding his head with his left hand in pain. "How do you know all this stuff?"

Steele shrugged. "My dad's a doctor. He taught me everything I know. Now we got to get you home, just as soon as they're done." he pointed towards the fight that was going on.

Archie's eyes widened. "No... I have to help them! I have to fight him!" he pointed to Cronus. He attempted to get up, but soon cried in pain as Steele shook his head.

"Not a good plan at the moment. Plus I don't think you could win against that maniac. Just stay here." the boy thought for a moment. "Oh yeah, I forgot to ask you: _What the FUCK is going on?!_" the boy demanded, disregarding all barriers of his speech

Archie winced, and was a little shocked at the other boy's language. "Don't yell, you'll make my head hurt more..." He sighed, rubbing a temple with his good hand. "Long story short, Greek Mythology exists, me and my friends are the Chosen Ones destined to defeat Cronus and save the world." He said anticlimactically.

"First of, it's 'my friends and I'. Secondly, that's REALLY the God of Time?" Steele said skeptically. Archie nodded, and Steele slapped his forehead. "Oh man...this can't get any worse."

* * *

Atlanta gritted her teeth as she avoided Cronus' attack. She was trying her best to ignore Archie's plight for the moment and focus on the now, but her mind just kept going back to that same boy, over and over again. She shook her head, and kept her attention to Cronus, shoving her thoughts to the back of her mind.

The god was now fighting the three of them, using his twin scythes and trying to chop their freaking heads off. _Harsh much? _Atlanta thought. She ducked a high sweep and countered with a kick in Cronus' gut. The god recoiled slightly, which gave Jay and Theresa enough time to attack.

The two linked hands, and Jay started to spin Theresa into the air. The two kept going and going, making more and more revolutions. After a few moments, Jay took a quick look at Cronus' position. He kept spinning, but, timing the release, let go of Theresa. She flew through the air as velocity launched her to Cronus. She somersaulted, and went into a flying kick, slamming right into the Time God's chest, sending him straight out the hole that he had made to get into the store, landing on top of the pile of fallen giants from before.

"It's over Cronus! Surrender!" Jay said, standing over the god. Cronus rolled his eyes; he had heard that line one too many times.

"Oh please Jay, you should know me by now: I'll never surrender!" he snapped his fingers, and the ever-familiar black portal appeared under the pile of giants, sucking them and Cronus in. Before Jay had a chance to react, they were gone, the portal closed.

Jay slammed his hand on the hard concrete in frustration. "No! Not again!" he growled.

Atlanta blinked. She hadn't seen Jay like this before, so frustrated by another typical escape. She glanced over at Theresa, who was thinking the same thing. Atlanta smiled half-heartedly. "You want to talk to him?" she asked, gesturing to the leader. Theresa was instantly at the boy's side in a second. Atlanta rolled her eyes with a smile, and suddenly remembered Archie.

She quickly turned her head over to where Archie was, and quickly sped over to him, being mindful of Steele. She bent down on one knee. "You alright there?" Atlanta asked semi-worriedly.

Archie looked at her. "I can't move my wrist, my chest hurts, my head is pounding, and I feel as hot as a rotisserie." he said. He smiled warmly. "Of course I'm alright!"

Atlanta grinned, and punched him lightly on the arm. "Nice one doofus." she let out a chuckle. She noticed Steele getting up in front of her.

"Can you watch him for a bit? I might as well check up on Theresa and Jay." Steele asked. Atlanta nodded, raising an eyebrow slightly as he left towards her friends. _Since when did he care about us?_ She thought. Shrugging, she sat down beside the injured warrior, and kept him company.

There was silence between the two; the only sounds audible were a bit of clatter, some stones randomly falling around, and the sound of Archie's laboured breath. She looked at him. "Are you sure you're alright? You don't sound good."

Archie shook his head. "Nothing that I haven't had before." he replied. Atlanta noticed him trying to cover up a few winces as he spoke.

She rolled her eyes, knowing that he was lying. She didn't bring it up. She would torture him with it when they get back to the dorm.

Archie had immediately changed the topic. "So how about them giants, eh?" he said causally, earning a laugh from Atlanta.

"What are you, Mr. T?" she commented, stifling more laughs.

Archie grinned, and brought up a finger. "I pity da fool who mess with me!" he said, impersonating the famous line. Atlanta giggled even more. Archie smirked and laughed along with her.

The joke died down for a bit, and Atlanta took a glimpse up ahead, noticing the guitar playing kid from before. She looked at Archie. "So what do you think about him?" she asked, gesturing towards Steele.

Archie looked at her, and took a quick glance back at the kid. "I don't know...normally kids like him would be screaming and running away from danger. He's..." Archie paused, struggling to find the right word.

"Different?" Atlanta finished for him. Archie nodded.

"Yeah. Different." he shrugged, wincing at the pain a bit. "He does know alot about medicine."

Altanta raised an eyebrow. "Really? Do tell."

"Well for one, he determined that I had a concussion by looking straight at my eyeball, which blinded the hell out of me..." he rubbed his eye at the memory. "He figured out that I sprained my wrist. Normally someone would say that I broke it. But he used that word instead." Archie explained.

Atlanta however raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Your point?" she asked bluntly.

Archie groaned. "He made 3 separate diagnoses in a way that would normally be seen at the doctors."

Atlanta gaped. "Oooooohhhhhhh!" she said overdramatically. Archie just stared at her quizzically.

The huntress returned the look, and innocently said, "What?"

Archie rolled his eyes, and just muttered "Never mind."

The girl beside him shrugged. "If you say so."

There was some more silence between the two, a few whispers heard from the outside alley. Atlanta was about to go see what was going on, but she remembered that Archie shouldn't be alone. He might go off and do something that he might regret.

She sighed, and her eyes wandered around, looking for something to do. She looked towards the stage, which was a little damaged from the fight but still standing. The curtains had fallen, revealing the stuff backstage, which was most likely Steele's.

Atlanta raised an eyebrow when she saw Steele's guitar resting on its stand. She wasn't very proficient in the guitar, but she had always wondered what it was like. _Maybe he won't mind..._ she thought.

She rose from her spot, and started walking over to the stage. Archie watched her with interest, eyebrows raised. "Uh...Lannie? What are you doing?"

"I just want to check something out." she responded, jumping up to the stage. Archie blinked, his curiosity peaked. Despite the insanely sharp pain in his chest, he still managed to get up, using the wall as a support, and he walked over to the stage, going up the steps at the side of the raised platform. He saw Atlanta at what was supposedly backstage, sitting down on a stool, as the curtains had fallen over a point where they would be suspended in if they hadn't collapsed.

Atlanta was holding a black guitar on her lap, curious as to what to do with it. He raised an eyebrow. "Isn't that Steele's guitar?"

"Yep." she answered plainly. She plucked a few strings, and beamed with delight as she discovered how to play notes.

The purple haired warrior beside her blinked, and sighed at her obliviousness. "And don't you think that he'll be pissed off if he finds out?"

"Who knows? I've always wanted to know what a guitar is like." Atlanta responded, obviously not getting the full picture. Archie scowled, and groaned, giving up. He took a seat on the ledge, letting his legs dangle, and his good hand clutching his chest. He sighed, listening to Atlanta's quiet music, which was quite terrible, to say the least, but why would he tell her that?

Atlanta, meanwhile, was still playing Steele's guitar. She was just randomly plucking strings, her left hand randomly going on frets and strings, not really caring. She was just happy that she was playing an instrument. Back at home she didn't have time for music. Her parents just made her run. Run and hunt, that's all they wanted her to do. _Screw them. I love music! And did they care? No! _she complained in her mind.

As her anger increased, as the memories flowed through her head, her playing got more aggressive, despite it being dreadful. The strings tension increased and increased, unknowingly to Atlanta. They tightened and tensed as Atlanta continued to scrape her fingernails against the strings. Memories of her parents, the lectures they gave her, the harsh training, the no-supper-when-she-rebelled, frustrated her to her very core.

_You will not play an instrument. _The memory cried out.

"Dad..." Atlanta muttered absentmindedly. She plucked a string violently in anger.

Big mistake.

With that one pluck, the string's tension broke, effectively snapping the string right at the bridge. The steel string coiled up instinctively. Unfortunately, the end where the snap was hadn't snapped cleanly. It was jagged and sharp, and as the string coiled up, the sharp edge scraped across Atlanta's cheek, creating a good sized cut on her face. The string coiled up at the head, and Atlanta gave a sharp yelp as the cut was formed. She slapped a hand onto her cheek in pain, and dropped the guitar on the ground.

Archie was at her side in an instant, despite his broken ribs. His eyes widened in shock. "Atlanta! What happened?" he asked, a hand on her shoulder. Atlanta looked at Archie, and put down her hand, revealing a long bleeding cut that went across her cheek. Archie took a sharp breath. "Ooooh. Wow. That's nasty."

Atlanta winced. "Is it really that bad?" Archie nodded, and the girl moaned.

But then something caught her eye. It was something glittering from a duffel bag tucked away beside the amp. Atlanta, curiosity overtaking pain, went over to it, and bent down, and removed something from the bag. Archie followed, wondering what Atlanta was doing.

"Atlanta? What is it?" he asked. Atlanta brought it up to her face to get a good look at it, and her eyes widened.

"Archie..." she breathed. Turning around, she showed him her find. His eyes widened in shock, and he gaped.

"Does that belong to..." he trailed off, looking back at her. She nodded. "So that means..." Archie said again, trailing off to let the significance set in.

"We need to show Jay."


	4. Revelations and New Meanings

**Argh... so late! **

**Sorry about the HUGE delay on this chapter. School's been messing up my schedule madly nowadays, especially since the end of the year is coming up. And now that spring has started, my allergies have started to blossom, and therefore try to kill my eyesight. It's not pretty. **

**God I hate pollen...**

**WARNING: Profanity in this chapter. **

* * *

**Chapter 4: Revelations and New Meanings**

Jay couldn't believe it. Cronus had gotten away _again!_ Why does he always do that?! Jay banged the ground in frustration. He looked around, and saw no one in the alleyway that he was in. He heard delicate footsteps approaching from behind, but ignored them. He was veeeery pissed off right now.

"Jay? Are you alright?" Theresa asked hesitantly, not sure how he would react. This was a delicate moment for the leader. She would have to be cautious.

Jay hesitated for a moment, before sighing deeply. Now wasn't the time to go nuts now. He got up slowly and turned back at Theresa. He blew some hair out of his face. "Yeah, I guess so." he lied. He was feeling a hell lot of things right now, but might as well keep them bottled up until later on.

Theresa, however, didn't buy it. "Are you sure? Cronus has gotten away lots of times, and you've never reacted like this before."

Jay went straight up to Theresa's face before. He couldn't control himself, something inside him just snapped. "Well what do you think?! Of course I've never reacted like this before, because I've been keeping it inside! Right here!" He pointed a finger to his heart. "Right here! Every single failure, every single escape, every single delay, I've kept up right in here." He snapped at her. "One year. One freaking year!" he exclaimed.

"One year?" another voice came in.

Jay behind Theresa, while the girl spun around. There was Steele, leaning against the wall beside the huge gaping hole that led into the cafe. He had apparently been listening in the entire time. "You've been fighting that psychopath for a year?" he said again.

Theresa and Jay's eyes widened as he continued to speak. "Archie told me a little about you guys. You're apparently a group of teenagers who've been 'prophesized'," he brought up two fingers from each hand and wagged them to emphasize the word. "to save the world from the Titan God of Time." he laughed for a moment, walking slowly up to the two.

"I just have one question to ask you guys." he told them, crossing his arms.

Theresa and Jay glanced at each other. "What?" Jay asked.

"Who are you _really_?" Steele asked.

The two exchanged looks, and faced him again. Jay took a breath. "We're-"

"Jay!" another voice interrupted him. The three looked back towards the cafe, seeing Atlanta and Archie running towards them. Steele was slightly unhappy due to them ignoring his request, but happy that Archie was healing quite nicely.

The two stepped out of the hole, and went over to Jay and Theresa. Steele noticed Archie's laboured breathing, and made a mental note to take care of that. He looked at Atlanta, and noticed the thin cut across her cheek. "Woah, what happened to your cheek?" he asked her. Atlanta shrugged sheepishly, obviously covering up the real reason. He was about to press on, when he was interrupted.

"What is it guys?" Jay asked. Theresa looked curious as well and listened intently.

There were no words spoken from Atlanta or Archie. Just a glance between the two, and a nod. Atlanta dug into her pocket, and pulled out a medallion.

Jay's eyes widened. It was one of theirs. Theresa's hand went instantly to her own medallion that was under her shirt, touching it lightly. They were identical, no doubt about that.

"But...that means..." Jay whispered, mostly to himself, and he looked straight at Steele. The others did as well, their eyes asking the same question, _who are you?_

Steele blinked, and looked visibly unhappy. He went up to Atlanta, and snatched the medallion from her hand, and wrapped it around his neck. "Ok, before I explain _anything_, what were you doing going through my bag?" he asked firmly, pointing a finger at Atlanta.

The girl blinked, and chuckled weakly. "Uh...well...uhm..." she glanced towards Archie, imploring him for help. He got the message.

"I don't really think that's the issue right now. Where did you find that?" he asked.

Steele shrugged. "I found it on the street. I put up flyers for a while saying that I found something that didn't belong to me. No one claimed it for thirty days. Now it's mine. I was actually planning to give it to my cousin as a birthday present."

"You might not want to do that." Theresa pointed out. She reached down her shirt and pulled out her medallion, showing it to the boy. He raised an eyebrow. "Since when did you have one?"

Theresa smiled. "We all have one Steele."

Now this was getting really odd. Steele watched as Jay, Atlanta and Archie pulled out their medallions as well, proving her point. Steele gaped. "Uh...ok...so what does this mean?"

Jay answered that one. "It means you're one of us."

Steele looked at him questioningly. "I repeat: What does this mean?"

"It _means_," Jay said again. "That you're one of us. One of the heroes destined to save the world from Cronus."

Steele was silent, glancing at each person, before saying, "What?"

Jay thumped the heel of his hand onto his forehead, while Theresa, Atlanta and Archie groaned in annoyance.

Steele rolled his eyes "Oh come on! I'm not that dumb! That was just an expression of disbelief, I understand what you're saying...somewhat."

Jay sighed with relief. "Then I guess we should go." he turned around, and started walking down the alleyway to the streets. But he had taken two steps before hearing a familiar sound.

Caaaw! Caaw!

_Oh no...not them again. _Jay thought to himself, slapping his forehead again. He turned around. "Atlanta, grab his guitar and bag. We're flying back home." The girl nodded, and sped off back inside. Within 2 seconds, she had come back with Steele's guitar back in its case and his duffel bag, packed up and ready to go.

Archie blinked. "What do you mean _flying_ back ho-" Archie saw Jay point upwards. He looked up, and saw a sight that he didn't want to see again.

It was a gryphon.

"Aw crap."

Steele gaped. "What the FUCK is that?!" he exclaimed vulgarly, pointing towards the gryphon that was heading straight towards them erratically.

Theresa squinted as the flying animal approached, and noticed a person flying on the gryphon. She smiled as she recognized the figure.

"Kids?!" the figure called down, genuinely surprised. He jumped down from his mount, and walked over to the group.

Steele blinked. "And who might you be?"

Jay answered that one. "Steele, this is Hermes, the Greek god of Messengers."

The god frowned somewhat, but kept his cheery appearance. "Oh not only that. I'm also the god of-"

"Boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and cowherds, of thieves and road travellers, of orators and wit, of literature and poets, of athletics, of weights and measures, of invention, of commerce in general, and of the cunning of thieves and liars." Steele and Jay finished, simultaneously. The two glanced at each other in impressiveness.

"I'm Greek." Jay explained.

"Let's just say, you can learn a lot from school assignments." Steele explained.

Hermes beamed in flattery. "Well I'm very impressed by that accurate telling of the stuff I represent, but we should get moving. I'm on a tight schedule here." he quickly said, tapping his wrist for emphasis.

"Are we going via..." Steele pointed at the gryphon that had carried Hermes to Toronto. "flying...animal...thing?"

Hermes nodded. "Yep! I brought enough gryphons for everyone! They're just up there." Hermes pointed to the sky, where 4 more flying animals were circling around, waiting for their master's orders.

Steele picked up his guitar and bag, and shouldered the duffel bag. He put on the guitar case like a backpack, and went up to the gryphon nervously.

"Please tell me that he or she is friendly..." Steele asked Hermes nervously. He nodded happily.

"Of course! Tamed her myself, she's perfectly safe. Now go on, get on her! Everyone else is ready." He gestured to the others, who had somehow already mounted their gryphons.

Steele gulped nervously as he approached the gryphon. He petted the animal on the side for a moment, before saying, "Boy or girl?"

"Her name's Andrea. So yeah, girl." Hermes quickly answered.

For some reason, that just made Steele even more nervous. _Hopefully she had lunch today, or I'm screwed_. Steele thought to himself, as he somehow mounted the gryphon. Luckily there was a saddle on her, so it was easy to mount up onto her. He securely fastened his stuff into the side pockets, which were bigger than he thought they would be. Once he was ready to go, he gave a thumb up to Hermes.

The god grinned, and waved his herald's staff gracefully. The gryphons instantly cawed, and flew into the air, and started heading off towards what might be considered to be a sunset.

* * *

"Steele?" A faint voice said. "Steeele?" the voice said again.

A groan and a mutter was heard. Atlanta raised an eyebrow.

"HEY! Steele!" she yelled into his ear.

"BANANAS AND WHIPPED CREAM!" Steele yelped out as he shot up from his slumber. His eyes shifted from side to side quickly as he got his bearings, and noticed Atlanta and Theresa beside him. "Uh...hi?" he murmured meekly, a weak smile on his face.

Theresa and Atlanta giggled. "Good evening to you too." Theresa responded.

"Evening?" the boy raised an eyebrow, and instantly looked down.

His eyes fell upon a 200 meter drop.

"AHH! SHIT!" Steele's eyes widened as he jumped in shock. He instantly felt himself dropping down to his left, prompting him to grab onto his gryphon mount in fear. The animal cried out in pain, and jerked to the side. "Aw crap!" Steele cursed, holding onto the animal even harder.

"Hey! Andrea was it? Yeah, you think you can turn around so I can get back on? Please? Come on!" Steele pleaded to the flying mammal. As he looked into her eyes (or rather eye due to the angle which he was looking at her), he noticed a glint. His eyes widened. _This can't be good._

Andrea instantly did a barrel roll, right in the air, catapulting Steele high into the air. He flailed his arms wildly as he rose, then fell, his heart and stomach sinking as he felt the adrenaline rush in.

"AHHH!" he cried. He landed stomach first onto Andrea's saddle, which cushioned the blow on his stomach, but Steele's forehead and left knee landed onto the hard metal parts of the saddle. "Gah!" he yelped. "Ow! That was NOT fun."

The others had caught wind of Steele's plight, but took no action, having been gone through that too many times during their years as heroes. They might as well get him used to it, as he was basically one of them now. Jay, however, was slightly impressed at Steele's reaction to the situation. When Neil first rode a gryphon, he was bawling tears once he got off. He hadn't gone near the gryphon pen since.

Hermes was in front of the V formation which had been the pattern that the heroes had been flying in. He noticed that they had arrived at their destination, and turning around, he called back to the others, "We're here!"

"YES! THANK YOU!" Steele cried gleefully. He then started to say something else, but in a totally different language from English. He emphasized certain syllables, and made completely odd gestures to go along with it. Even Hermes was a little surprised, but still understood what he was saying. Theresa, Atlanta, Archie and Jay, however, were totally blank.

Archie raised an eyebrow, and pulled his gryphon mount up beside Jay's, and muttered, "What's up with him?" Jay shrugged.

"Alright kids! Time for a landing!" Hermes informed them. He suddenly waved his staff, and the gryphons dive bombed downwards, giving everyone a rush as the sudden action was performed.

"WHAT THE HELL! HEY!" Steele yelped out in the middle of the dive, obviously pissed off by this whole spectacle. Why, oh why couldn't they just drive?

As the group dived down towards the earth, they parted through the clouds, and revealed a school.

"Welcome to New Olympia High Steele!" Hermes called out to him. "Here you will learn about your destiny."

The gryphons made a landing at what appeared to be a track-and-field area, going down Santa Claus style. As soon as the animals made a landing, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Jay dismounted first, after Hermes, with Theresa following. Steele shakily followed, still feeling aftershocks of the trip. Atlanta came down from her mount, but looked around for a moment.

"Where's Archie?" she looked around for a moment, and noticed a blue sweater wearing hero shaking to his shoes, holding roughly and tightly onto his gryphon ride. Atlanta walked over to him, and took off his hood. The boy, visibly petrified, looked up childishly towards Atlanta.

"Mommy? Did the ride stop?"

* * *

Cronus rubbed his chin in thought as the scene unfolded from his 'spying pool'. "Interesting. It seems that we have an 8th in our midst. Do you know what this means, Agnon?" he asked the giant who was behind him. Agnon, one hand holding an ice pack to his head, grunted with uncertainty. Cronus whipped his head at him, and stared at him with a very angry face, his eyes lighting on fire. "This means that now I have 8 mortals coming after my hide! 8!" he snapped.

He turned back around, and rubbed his head in thought. "What to do...what to do..." his eyes suddenly shifted to the right. He looked in that direction, wondering who was spying on him now?

"Who's there?" Cronus said. "Come out!"

The seemingly blank wall suddenly warped and shifted itself around into a portal of some sort. The wall suddenly vibrated with ripples as a figure came out of the shadows, cloaked in black and red.

Cronus searched his memory as to who this figure could be. Surprisingly enough, no memory came up. "Who are you?" Cronus asked, summoning his scythes.

There was a chilling laugh echoing through the hall, making Cronus shiver deep to the core. That laugh was otherworldly...

_You may not know me...but I have been watching you for a very long time...Cronus._ A voice quietly said, appearing to belong to the figure, but sounded like it was coming from all around Cronus.

_You will not need those. I mean you no harm._ The figure waved a cloaked hand, and Cronus looked down at his hands. They were empty.

"What the...how did you..." Cronus stammered. He was now seriously freaked out. "What are you?"

That chilling laugh again... _All in due time. I have come to you in concerns of the 8__th__ child. _

Cronus was now intrigued, if still very scared. He raised an eyebrow. "What business do you have with him?"

_He is not who he seems. I have been hunting him down for some time now. _the demon laughed again, echoing through the hall.

Cronus stared straight at the figure. "And so what? It's not my problem." he told the other...thing... turning around. He took a few steps forwards in thought as to the situation. He turned around, and blinked.

He was gone.

_How about this? _That voice appeared again. Closer this time. Very close. Cronus turned around, and saw that black hooded figure right behind him. He yelped out in surprise. "AH! Don't do that!"

_I apologize, but this is no time for shenanigans. I want the boy, and I want you to get him. Are we clear? _The thing said, cutting to the chase. Cronus sighed.

"Fine. But there will be a price."

He heard a chuckle emanating from the being. _Name your price. _

* * *

**From now on, updates will now be sporadic. I am no longer able to keep up a normal schedule due to multiple conflicts with other commitments that I have. I apologize, and I hope that this doesn't put anyone in disarray. **

**Oh, and Read and Review please. Thanks!**

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